It's Time Skimboarding, Surfing's Lesser-Known Cousin, Got Some Time In The Spotlight

It's Time Surfing's Lesser-Known Cousin Got Some Time In The Spotlight

Skimboarding might be the less cool, lesser-known cousin of surfing, but professional skimboarder David Sterman is trying to change all that.

In a footage posted to Vimeo in September, the Hawaii-born wave rider can be seen taking the sport to a new level, challenging the laws of physics while he glides through shallow-breaking waves, shoots through barrels and launches gravity-defying airs -- all on a flat, finless board no more than an inch thick.

While surfers can float atop their boards and paddle ahead of waves, serious skimboarders like Sterman run from the sand and jump into the wave as it is still forming, timing their every movement with the unpredictable shore break. If they misread the wave, skimboarders risk wiping out over the hard, wet surface below.

In order to stay afloat when sliding into deeper waters, skimboarders keep their flat boards at a slight angle and move precisely to maintain speed without sinking. How Sterman manages to carve and hop over waves -- and even pull a 360-degree "shove it" -- without ever hitting the sand, however, is beyond us.

Watch (above) as Sterman expertly shreds the California coast. We highly recommend you set the video to fullscreen.

Footage filmed and edited by Skylar Wilson, with aerial photography by Eric Sterman.

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